Gamescom 2014: First Shadow Realms Hands-on

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Sometimes it’s better to lay traps than be seen.

By Tal Blevins

Although a huge video game show – one of the largest in the world -- Gamescom isn’t known for big surprises, mainly because it follows so closely on the heels of E3. Well apparently someone forgot to let BioWare Austin know that because they took to the stage at Electronic Arts’ press conference in Cologne, Germany and showed off a brand-new game that's only been previously teased as a "secret upcoming project": Shadow Realms. Even more surprising is that right after the game was announced for the first time, I got a chance to hop in and try it out for myself.

Similar in design to Evolve and Fable Legends, Shadow Realms is a PC-only 4-versus-1 online action RPG. About now you’re probably asking yourself “Why the $%*# is BioWare making an online 4v1 action RPG that’s only for the PC?” Sure, BioWare is best known for their story-driven RPGs such as Baldur’s Gate and Knights of the Old Republic and in recent years for focusing on a couple of long-running franchises such as Mass Effect and Dragon Age, but it’s not that far-fetched to think of BioWare taking the lead on a fast-paced, online, competitive dungeon crawler. After all, BioWare did start out making PC-only games; their first project ever was the mech sim Shattered Steel in 1996, and with games like Neverwinter Nights, they have a long history of making great dungeon crawlers -- although none quite as action-focused as Shadow Realms.

Shadow Realms is set in the modern world, but it features familiar fantasy archetypes to make it easily identifiable to gamers. Although you can customize your character with hundreds of different abilities and special attacks, the four basic prototypes are weapon-wielding, hard-hitting warriors, health-restoring, undead destroying clerics, fire and lightning-chucking wizards and stealthy, deadly assassins. Their mission? Make it through a deadly, monster-filled dungeon, warping through various extra-dimensional realms and hopefully getting to and taking down the big, bad demon at the end.

I played as the dreaded Shadow Lord against the party of humans. The Shadow Lord is the main antagonist in Shadow Realms, but he also serves as an on-the-fly Dungeon Master of sorts. “We love tabletop RPGs, and we really wanted to recreate that pen-and-paper experience with Shadow Realms,” Senior Creative Director James Ohlen told us when introducing the puppet master-like role of the Shadow Lord.

While Shadow Realms is certainly more fast-paced than a tabletop experience, the Shadow Lord does share many similarities with a tabletop Game Master. Essentially, the Shadow Lord is an unseen presence controlling the dungeon as the other four players move through it. He lays hidden traps and bombs, creating choke points and squeezes in tight areas. He activates existing environmental traps for the party to unsuspectingly fall into. He can move ahead in the dungeon and set up rooms the players haven’t even got to yet to thwart their forward progress. All the while he’s totally invisible to the players, so they don’t know what the Shadow Lord is doing or where he’s doing it until they stumble upon one of his devious deceptions.

The only time the party sees the Shadow Lord is when he possesses one of the many creatures in the dungeon. While directing a monster, a blue light indicates to the opposing team that the Shadow Lord is in control. If that’s the case you’d better focus your attacks since the Shadow Lord will usually be more effective and tricky than AI-driven foes. While in possession of creatures the Shadow Lord can use any of their abilities, which can be devastating to the party when in control of a powerful undead or demon.

Like any good adventure, the difficulty of the dungeon ramps up as the party progresses. This allows the Shadow Lord to set more deadly traps, use a wider array of abilities and possess bigger and stronger creatures with which to thwart the group.

As an advanced skill, the Shadow Lord can also use the Doppelganger skill to mimic player characters. In that mode there is no direct indication that the clone is being controlled by the Shadow Lord, but you better believe there will be some confusion for the players when they realize there are two Assassins in the group, especially one who seems hell bent on taking the rest of the party down.

Our play session today was around 15 minutes for the level, but James from BioWare said that it was quicker than expected at launch so they can get people through the demo faster at Gamescom. However, the game will ultimately still be centered on fast, competitive experiences. James told us right now the average dungeon takes about 30 to 45 minutes, but that the team will tweak based on feedback.

Although we didn't see much of the plot today, there will be a full story for Shadow Realms, which will play out in a series of episodic dungeons. And while no exact date has been announced as of yet, Shadow Realms is currently slated to be released sometime near the end of 2015.

Oh, and in case you’re wondering, I ultimately wiped out the pesky, puny humans. Long live the Shadow Lord!

Tal Blevins usually doesn't get scared by his own shadow...usually. Follow him at @talign on Twitter.